No Indian Patient Should Be Overlooked In Allocation Of Organs, Says Dr. Kanthimathi

IWB Post

June 13, 2018

To ensure that all Indian patients deserving an organ get it, Dr. Kanthimathi, Chief Civil Surgeon, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai, who recently took charge as Member Secretary, Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN), wants to bring about transparency in the organ transplantation programme there.

In an interview with The Hindu, she talked about dealing with the allegations that foreigners are given organs bypassing Indian patients on the wait-list.

“My immediate challenge is to make this organization transparent so that no Indian patient is overlooked in the allocation of organs. If I can address this problem of transparency in the system then probably other things will just fall in place. All Indian patients deserving organs should get it,” she said.

Initially, TRANSTAN would send SMS alerts to hospitals on the availability of organs of brain-dead patients but now they have started a WhatsApp group with all stakeholders as members. Though this step brought about a certain level of transparency, some quarters have been trying to shut it down.

“By and large, say about 90% surgeons and consultants are happy with this because they get alerts instantly and come to know of the organ allocations. But there might be some antagonism towards this from some quarters which I don’t want to state. I think we can overcome that problem,” she said.

Many times it happens that a hospital claims that the Indian patients who are on its wait list for organ transplant do no fit the transplant. They then seek the organ for a foreigner. And sometimes they are not being truthful. “There is a possibility that a false claim can be made to give preference to a foreign national. I don’t have the manpower to check all that… I need somebody to go to that hospital and check. TRANSTAN has only seven transplant coordinators working for the whole of Tamil Nadu who are working on a contract basis. This is another challenge for me,” she said.